Improving assessment

It’s common knowledge amongst educators and educational designers that assessment plays a critical role in formal educational settings. Assessment, and students’ understanding of the requirements of assessment, drives learning. For those of us involved in professional education the key is to design assessment tasks that connect with the knowledge, skill and values students need to become effective professional practitioners.

I recently ran a workshop on improving assessment practices for Otago Polytechnic’s School of Midwifery. The workshop focussed on the principles of constructive alignment and engaged participants in a critical review of a sample of their own assessment materials. The school is now planning to adopt a set of assessment principles, and to audit their assessment practices.